Check out this fascinating take by renowned legal historian Mary L. Dudziak:

If World War II is the classic, old-fashioned American war, placing Pearl Harbor in its context – as an event in a longer story of America’s entry into World War II – helps us to see that even during the most iconic 20th century American war, war powers could not be contained within a declared “wartime.” As we face the contemporary problem of maintaining democratic checks on war powers when war has no boundaries, we should not look back with nostalgia to a time when things seemed clearer. Instead we find an example of our current troubles in the fuzzy borders of World War II.

Definitely thought-provoking.